The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health launched a new research center to study aging and age-related diseases.
More specifically, the Wisconsin Nathan Shock Center will study the link between how metabolic changes associated with aging influence a person’s health and cause disease.
The goal of the studies is to generate insights to improve health care approaches linked to diabetes, cancer, heart disease and Parkinson’s.
The National Institutes of Health and UW-Madison are investing $6.3 million in the center for cross-campus collaboration. Wisconsin will join eight other Nathan Shock Centers.
Rozalyn Anderson, professor of medicine, will lead the center, with co-directors John Denu, professor of biomolecular chemistry, and Dudley Lamming, professor of medicine.
“It has become abundantly clear that aging biology affects a host of chronic diseases that we see in health care in America today,” Anderson said in a statement. “Aging is the biggest risk factor for cancer, neurodegenerative disease and cardiovascular disease, and all of these chronic conditions occur more frequently in older individuals.”
The center will bring together more than 40 researchers from across the UW-Madison campus who work on metabolism and aging, and has issued a national call for pilot project proposals on the biology of aging.
